4.3 Early Modernism

Breaking with tradition

Early 20th-century Modernism shattered old rules. Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' fractured the figure, launching Cubism — multiple viewpoints at once, inspired partly by African masks.

Abstraction & expression

Movements multiplied: Expressionism (raw emotion), Fauvism (wild color), and pure abstraction (Kandinsky). Klimt's 'The Kiss' shimmered with pattern and gold.

Dada & the readymade

Dada mocked art itself: Duchamp's 'Fountain' (a urinal signed 'R. Mutt') is a readymade that asked whether an ordinary object can be art — reframing the very idea of art.

Key terms

Modernism

early-1900s break with traditional rules

'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'

Picasso — launched Cubism

Cubism

multiple viewpoints of an object at once

Readymade

an ordinary object presented as art (Duchamp)

Dada

anti-art movement questioning what art is

Try an AP-style question

Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon helped launch…

1. Cubism
2. Surrealism
3. Impressionism
4. Pop Art